Today it is a year since La Plaza opened, and I’d like to say congratulations to Lee and Heather for creating such a great little restaurant bar.

Situated in the busy square in Almerimar, La Plaza is one of my favourite places for a drink and interesting tapas, coffee and scrummy home-made cakes, a girlie salad lunch, breakfast or a relaxed supper. It always has a friendly atmosphere, and being small and cosy more often than not we find we bump into someone, whether it’s English friends, people on holiday who are Almerimar life readers, or last week a big tables of Spaniards we know.

With all the excitement of the Euro2008 final , it feels as if we have used Al-rruz more as a tapas bar then a restaurant recently, so it was great today when Chris and I decided to have an impromptu lunch there!

I wrote in December about Elegance , the lovely little gift shop opposite the square in Almerimar. Unfortunately like so many small businesses here, it has struggled and is now closing at the end of the summer. I think this is such a shame as we need interesting little shops to add to what Almerimar already has to offer. Anyway for anyone looking for a girlie present or a little treat for themselves, there are discounts of around 30% and plenty of stock left to chose from. I bought myself some lovely earrings yesterday, so it is well worth a look.

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar Almerimar is a great place to live as an expat amongst the expats, or to work amongst the Spanish. There are all kinds of properties including villas, apartments and town houses for rent or sale. It is a very traditional part of Spain, with traditional Spanish foods so if you plan to travel to Spain either to look for jobs, for your company to trade with companies in Spain, or to learn Spanish and enjoy the Spanish weather then come and take a look. If you are interested in purchasing a property in Almerimar please visit our sponsor Mediterraspain. If you have purchased a property and need it furnished please check out our Sponsors DBJ who will give you a Exclusive 5% discount with the code AL2008. If you want to learn Spanish, get help with anything to do with the legal issues in Spain, or want WiFi access in the marina please check out our sponsor CentrePoint who will give you a 10% discount off all services with the code AL2008. If you want an amazing activity based day out in the mountains and to learn how to ride a motorcycle off road then check out our sponsor The Long Way Round and get 5% off with the code AL2008. Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.

Sandra wrote yesterday about the schedule for the last night of celebration for Virgen del Carmen and last night we went down to participate.

Don’t you just love it when something exceeds your expectations?

About 7 months ago Chris bought me a very cute red iPod Nano. The red product range is the one where Apple give a % of the sale to charity so that was a extra bonus. I loved my Nano and used it all the time when running, learning Spanish (well maybe not all the time then!), and up on the roof either sunbathing or playing with the cats.

Just back from Monica’s hair salon where I go to my very pleasant beautician Isobel, who is great for practising your Spanish but also speaks some English! I was chatting to Monica and Isobel about the fiesta and music events this weekend.

Ok I don’t mean literally whether to live in a mess or do some cleaning. My question really is how much to do oneself on the basis that most of we girls find cleaning and housework generally about as boring as any man would if they got around to doing much of it. Of course there are women who actually enjoy this dubious task and good luck to them, and there are those who end up doing extra as a job, the latter being integral to my question.

Yesterday I lost my Nokia N95, which meant that today I had to sort out a replacement SIM card and phone. The main priority phone wise for me is 3G capabilities and the ability to run QIK on it so that I can stream live video. The N95 was perfect and I had actually stopped using my iPhone. However with the new iPhone released today it was always going to be tempting, and many of my friends, colleagues and readers of my Personal Blog are convinced that I lost the N95 on purpose!

The Foro has been a slight mystery to me since I went to the launch evening a year ago in June. Obviously I was aware that it was all about organising events in Almerimar, as I have been to a number of good ones; I just wasn’t too sure what its aims were. In our first article on the foro we wrote that it was all about “trying to develop peoples’ awareness of Almerimar.” Since that evening, having had conversations with various people, I came to the conclusion that its remit was more focused on specifically generating business, which is why I found the gastronomic event a little confusing and wrote afterwards:

As I am sure you are aware we have had my niece (Laura) and her friend (Hickey) staying with us last week. It was interesting for Chris and I as we are sin children, so having two 19 year olds under the roof was different - I think Chris is relieved to get his bathroom back and some peace and quiet!! I don’t see Laura that often so it was good to have time with her, although to be fair we didn’t see that much of them as it was their holiday and they wanted to be out and about on their own.

Sands & “The Girls”

Wow it definitely is getting warm! I still haven’t managed to get up and out for a run by 8.30 am my target time, but this morning I did manage 9ish. However that extra 30 mins seems to make a big difference now in terms of the sun’s heat. At 8.30 I was actually enjoying a cup of tea in relative cool on the roof, whilst even walking down to the bins to start my run, I was feeling decidedly warm! Anyway I got my 3-4 Kms done and running down the beach certainly makes it more bearable. Today I noticed the pedalos lined up on the East beach, another sign of peak season approaching. Maybe if morning runs become harder I will have to switch to evening but by 8pm (bearable heat time), I am usually starting to chill out, maybe even with a beer or a glass of wine, OR being challenged to table tennis by Chris, SO basically fitness training in Summer here IS tough. What is the answer?

I have written before about what brought me to Almerimar, but in case you don’t know it was pesticide levels on the greenhouse produce. So it was interest and alarm that I read recently about bogus pesticides here in Almeria.

Spanish police detained the president of the local co-operative on suspicion of selling the cheaper unlicensed product to farmers desperate to produce more peppers at lower cost. With further raids in December, they have arrested 15 people and seized 4,000kg of illegal pesticides among the greenhouses of Almeria, centre of Spain’s huge fruit and vegetable industry.

Generally speaking when readers of the site stop us and say hello, they tend to ask about Moreno and Saidi and the Meet Saidi introductory post back on the 17th January created quite a few comments.

Last night we had a very quiet night in, up on the roof for a hour or so until 10pm playing with the cats and trying to play some Table Tennis. As you will see from the video Moreno had other ideas for the table (well the net to be more accurate) and even Saidi jumped up and had a go towards the end.

Post Updated Since Original Post With Pictures From Inés

What an excellent result. A good game, especially in the second half, and a very sociable occasion yet again. In fact that is the reason that this post is a little late - I left Al-rruz to walk home about 11.30pm, called into the D-Bar for a quick drink and chat with John ……. and got home just after 3.30am having spent the last couple of hours drinking Vodka with John in the 19th Hole (more on that later).